Overview
Catherine’s interests are in Modern and Contemporary African-American art and history. Her art historical practice is interdisciplinary; her research centers on the study of art and its relationships with Philosophy and Science (namely physics), and how the intersection of art and science can create space for new ways of thinking about vision, visuality and perception. Catherine’s dissertation transforms the concept of refraction into a framework that theorizes and critiques methodologies of witnessing and gazing in art. Using the Studio Museum in Harlem’s exhibition, Black Refractions (2019), as a springboard of reference and inspiration, Catherine uses refraction to investigate the nuanced ways that Black artists critically expand Blackness through their practice while also engaging with the cultural knowledge that Black artistry reflects.
Catherine earned her Bachelors in the History of Art and Visual Studies from the University of Central Florida and her Masters in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies from Florida State University. She has presented her work at the annual Symposium on the History of Art for graduate students jointly sponsored by The Frick Collection and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and the African American Art History: Present Coordinates symposium hosted by Boston University’s Department of the History of Art & Architecture. She has worked and taught in various museums and institutions including The Mennello Museum of American Art, the Goodwood Museums and Gardens, and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.